I'm not sure if it's possible for the religious zealots in Pakistan, to feel any more hostility towards the US, than they do right now. And as long as the US keeps propping up the Pakistani military, with around a billion dollars a year, they will keep funding an insurgency, whose only goal is to eliminate them. Was I the only one, that found it passing strange, that Osama Bin Laden, was able to seek safe sanctuary in Pakistan, right near a major military base. Or that the leadership goes tropo, whenever a drone takes out another high profile insurgent? Their attempts to appease these murdering monsters, is only compounding their own internal problems. Once the US and its allies have vacated Afghanistan, the US aid program should cease? Rhrosty.

Posted by Rhrosty, Friday, 22 March 2013 10:03:35 AM

The last thing America and the world needs is another film which promotes torture and killing as a legitimate means to imperial ends!

Surely the Yanks are bloodthirsty enough already! And given that they utilize rendition and torture and drones as well as depleted uranium, cages for prisoners, and child-killing sanctions, who knows what their psychopathic leadership might sink to given more encouragement from Hollywood where their fiendish dreams are manufactured.

As in Iraq, America brings ruination wherever it goes. The U.S. is anti-peace and pro-war. It is a force for evil.

That is a recipe for human extinction!

Posted by David G, Friday, 22 March 2013 10:59:24 AM

like the invasion in Iraq 10 years ago based on the lie of 'weapons of mass destruction', torture is also based on the lie that it's a handy technique - of last resort, of course - of the 'whatever it takes' mentality. That is a recipe for the politics of vendetta and revenge.Well, the Hatfields and McCoys may have started off with some silly spat, real or imagined, but the feud goes on generation after generation because everyone has sunk so low that it's hard to get a fix on how a civilized pro-life culture can actually work.

Those espousing torture will ultimately see that this odious policy will place more lives at risk than it ever purports to save. What goes around comes around.

Posted by SHRODE, Friday, 22 March 2013 12:34:18 PM

Much criticism of the U.S., and much of it rightly, but what could have been our current world situation without some of its intervention - directly and indirectly? More peaceful or even more threatening? Torture and rendition are wrong, but is all intervention also wrong and unjustifiable?

U.S. and Pakistan supporting the Taliban against the USSR caused the USSR to quit Afghanistan, but then also allowed the Taliban free rein (but not reign) - a situation which was apparently not lauded by the majority of ordinary Afghans. Should we be similarly concerned about potentials for the spread of radical Islam, like Sharia and the Muslim Brotherhood?

Certainly this movie is likely to stir up hostility, and so make matters worse, as have revelations regarding Guantanamo. Sometimes the revelation of truth is indeed counterproductive, but where should the line be drawn between revelation and national-interest or conspiratorial secrecy?

Iraq is in a mess, and much of this is down to dodgy or felonious malpractice by various U.S. contractors and middle-men, plus a degree of corruption on the Iraqi side - as it also becomes clearer that the whole invasion idea was greatly ill-conceived.Sometimes the best of intentions (if that is what they were) leads to unintended and deleterious outcomes.

What now for Afghanistan, or the rise of Islamic extremism? Should the West quit, or go on trying to make something better out of this mess, as well as out of the mess in Iraq?

Restitution is going to be difficult, but Pakistan is not without fault in this whole affair (though its participation in Afghanistan may have been reluctant), as its activities in Kashmir demonstrate - it has a considerable degree of intolerance of its own making.

A solution to Islamic extremism must be found, but Pakistan must do some soul-searching of its own before pointing the finger too accusingly at 'others'.

Is hatred of the U.S. the prime motivator in the rise of discontent and extremism, or can it be aspirations for another Islamic 'Golden Age'? (PS - its likely Osama was 'dobbed in' for a reward.)

Posted by Saltpetre, Friday, 22 March 2013 5:43:25 PM

Saltpetre, your question has received no reply and this thread has been poorly supported despite its importance to the world.

"Is hatred of the U.S. the prime motivator in the rise of discontent and extremism?"

In the Western world, most punters have no idea of the level of U.S. hatred which fills our world. Most punters seem to have rose-colored glasses when it comes to the imperial U.S. It's as though most folk have been lobotomized by some bad energy fields emanating from our television sets.

One day, perhaps soon, the Western world will awake to a terrible reality: that much of the world hates us!

It will be too late then and it will become white against coloured.

We are in the minority!

Posted by David G, Sunday, 24 March 2013 11:03:27 AM

The burning question of our time appears to me to be how to avoid the world being divided into several, or multiple, near-irreconcilable factions.We have combining vectors of social unrest causing political upheaval and reformation in some nation states, notably in the oil-rich Middle East and parts of mineral-rich Africa, ineffective governance and lack of social order in many parts, and a pervading covetousness and hatred of the affluent West.Overlaid on this we have major world powers competing for prominence and influence in all sectors holding promise of future trade and/or resource exploitation potential, all the while assessing the best bang for their buck rather than what may be best in the longer term for the future of humanity as a whole and for global stability, resilience and peaceful coexistence.We are facing a crossroad of sorts, with the future shape of human relations in the balance, and no easy or perfect pathway in sight, or even being seriously assessed. Cognitive dissonance and ego-centric aspiration conspire to quash consideration of a more inclusive, brighter and more harmonious future for humanity as a whole.

We may focus on COAG and the equitable distribution of resources to the states, but may it be time for the world forum (UN, IMF, World Bank, G20 et al) to assess the equitable distribution of the world's potential for the benefit of the whole of future human existence?All growth relies on compromise, and our greatest obstacles to attaining universal growth and stability may be our reluctance to discard divisiveness based on historical grievance or on religious, ethnic or cultural differences, and our unwillingness to share fairly in this world's practical potential. There must be a better way.